He saw that I was frightened, and softened his manner a little before he went on.
"You will never see Uncle George again," he said.

"Your mother and I love you dearly; but if you forget what I have told you, you will be sent away from home.

Never speak that name again--mind, never! Now kiss me, and go away." How his lips trembled--and oh, how cold they felt on mine! I shrunk out of the room the moment he had kissed me, and went and hid myself in the garden.
"Uncle George is gone.

I am never to see him any more; I am never to speak of him again"-- those were the words I repeated to myself, with indescribable terror and confusion, the moment I was alone.

There was something unspeakably horrible to my young mind in this mystery which I was commanded always to respect, and which, so far as I then knew, I could never hope to see revealed.